This tasteful, quaint red-brick house on a tree-lined street in northwest Washington doesn’t appear to be the headquarters for a private security company that stands to make millions in a war zone. But the

Along McCovey Cove, in the heart of San Francisco’s China Basin neighborhood, the Giants did their best on Friday night to clinch a spot in the 2010 MLB playoffs. Meanwhile, 40 miles south on Highway 101, dozens of diehard Giants fans gathered at Tied House, a Mountain View staple since 1988, to cheer on